If a rogue planet was headed towards the Earth, barreling down on our blue and green orb with alarming speed, we’d be able to see it coming, says a NASA video debunking claims the world is going to end on Dec. 21.

The ancient Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, leading theorists, bloggers and religious zealots to predict the simultaneous destruction of all humankind.

But NASA is so confident the world isn’t ending it released a video explaining its reasoning 10 days ahead of schedule. The video, meant to be released on Dec. 22, explains why the world wasn’t destroyed the day before.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY_Gc1bF8ds&w=640&h=390]

“No known asteroids or comets were on a collision course with Earth,” the video says.

“Neither is a rogue planet coming to destroy us. If there were anything out there like a planet headed for Earth … it would already be one of the brightest objects in the sky. Everybody on Earth could see it. You don’t need to ask the government. Just go out and look. It’s not there.”

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The video explains how the ancient calendar developed by the Maya actually worked, and how the end of the calendar — a rollover— isn’t the same as the end of the world.

“Look around you, the whole thing was a misconception from the very beginning,” the video says.

The Maya didn’t say much about what would happen after a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count comes to an end.

The 2009 disaster flick “2012” helped spark doomsday rumours, with its visions of Los Angeles crashing into the sea and mammoth tsunami waves swallowing the Himalayas.

Foreboding TV documentaries and alarmist websites followed, sparking panic in corners of the globe thousands of miles from the Mayan homeland of southern Mexico and Central America.

With files from the Associated Press

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/10-days-early-nasa-explains-why-the-mayan-apocalypse-didnt-actually-happen/feed1stdIf a rogue planet was headed towards the Earth, barreling down the on our blue and green orb with alarming speed, we'd be able to see it coming, says a NASA video debunking claims the world is going to end on Dec. 21.Don't worry, the world isn't actually ending in 10 days: Vatican astronomerhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/dont-worry-the-world-isnt-actually-ending-in-10-days-vatican-astronomer
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/dont-worry-the-world-isnt-actually-ending-in-10-days-vatican-astronomer#commentsWed, 12 Dec 2012 16:46:30 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=242628

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s top astronomer has some assurances to offer: The world won’t be ending in 10 days, despite predictions to the contrary.

The Rev. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrote in Wednesday’s Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that “it’s not even worth discussing” doomsday scenarios based on the Mayan calendar that are flooding the Internet ahead of the purported Dec. 21 apocalypse.

Yes, Funes wrote, the universe is expanding and if some models are correct, will at one point “break away” — but not for billions of years. But he said Christians profoundly believe that “death can never have the last word.”

The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The Mayans wrote that the significant 13th Baktun ends Dec. 21.

Funes’ assurances contradict a prediction from Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard who, in a spoof video for a radio station, wishes her citizens luck for the end of the world.

“Whether the final blow comes from flesh eating zombies, demonic hellbeasts or the total triumph of K-Pop,” Gillard said in the video. “If you know one thing about me, it is this: I will always fight for you, to the very end.”

She then says that the upside of the world ending is that she will no longer have to do Q&A again, referring to the Australian version of Question Period in parliament.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtj3gDaE64&w=640&h=390]With files from National Post staff

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/dont-worry-the-world-isnt-actually-ending-in-10-days-vatican-astronomer/feed2stdPanic or party? Thousands prepare for end of the Mayan calendar — and possibly the worldhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/panic-or-party-thousands-prepare-for-end-of-the-mayan-calendar-and-possibly-the-world
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/panic-or-party-thousands-prepare-for-end-of-the-mayan-calendar-and-possibly-the-world#commentsTue, 11 Dec 2012 20:42:43 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=242319

MEXICO CITY — The clock is ticking down to Dec. 21, the supposed end of the Mayan calendar, and from China to California to Mexico, thousands are getting ready for what they think is going to be a fateful day.

The Maya didn’t say much about what would happen next, after a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count comes to an end. So into that void have rushed occult writers, bloggers and New Age visionaries foreseeing all manner of monumental change, from doomsday to a new age of enlightenment.

The 2009 disaster flick “2012” helped spark doomsday rumors, with its visions of Los Angeles crashing into the sea and mammoth tsunami waves swallowing the Himalayas. Foreboding TV documentaries and alarmist websites followed, sparking panic in corners of the globe thousands of miles from the Mayan homeland of southern Mexico and Central America.

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As the big day approaches, governments and scientists alike are mobilizing to avoid actual tragedy. Even the U.S. space agency NASA intervened earlier this month, posting a nearly hour-long YouTube video debunking apocalyptic points, one by one.

The Internet has helped feed the frenzy, spreading rumors that a mountain in the French Pyrenees is hiding an alien spaceship that will be the sole escape from the destruction. French authorities are blocking access to Bugarach peak from Dec. 19-23 except for the village’s 200 residents “who want to live in peace,” the local prefect said in a news release.

“I think this tells us more about ourselves, particularly in the Western world, than it does about the ancient Maya,” said Geoffrey Braswell, an associate professor of anthropology and leading Maya scholar at the University of California, San Diego. “The idea that the world will end soon is a very strong belief in Western cultures. … The Maya, we don’t really know if they believed the world would ever end.”

As the clock ticks down, scenarios have mounted about how the end will come.

Some believe a rogue planet called Nibiru will emerge from its hiding place behind the sun and smash into the Earth. Others say a super black hole at the center of the universe will suck in our planet and smash it to pieces. At least two men in China are predicting a world-ending flood. They’re both building arks.

Lu Zhenghai has spent his life savings, some $160,000, building the 70-foot-by-50-foot vessel powered by three diesel engines, according to state media.

“I am afraid that when the end of the world comes, the flood will submerge my house,” the 44-year-old ex-army man was quoted as saying.

China’s most innovative ark builder, however, may be Yang Zongfu, a 32-year-old businessman in eastern China.

His vessel, Atlantis, a three-ton yellow steel ball 13 feet (four meters) in diameter, is designed to survive a volcano, tsunami, earthquake or nuclear meltdown, according to the state-run Liao Wang magazine.

Jose Manrique Esquivel, a descendent of the Maya, said his community in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula sees the date as a celebration of their survival despite centuries of genocide and oppression. He blamed profiteers looking to scam the gullible for stoking doomsday fears.

“For us, this Dec. 21 is the end of a great era and also the beginning of a new era. We renew our beliefs. We renew a host of things that surround us,” Esquivel said.

In fact, anthropologists aren’t even sure whether the end of the Mayan calendar falls on Dec. 21, or whether it’s already happened or is still to come, Braswell said. The date is mentioned in only two known cases, including an etching that says nine gods will descend from heaven to Earth. The verb describing what the gods will do is illegible in the etching.

“It probably was a ritual of some sort, and even if we had the glyph we wouldn’t understand what it is,” Braswell said. “What we know for sure is there’s no discussion of the end of the world on that date.”

The mystery isn’t only inspiring dread: Some are whipping out their yoga tights and meditation cushions and joining a global counter-movement promoting the date as the start of a new era of hope.

Thousands of New Age adherents are expected to fill ancient sites across Mexico in the days leading up to Dec. 21, while their spiritual brethren party in hotspots as diverse as Culver City, Calif., and Byron Bay, Australia.

One of the biggest movements is Birth 2012, which is using the Mayan date to launch what it hopes will be a global spiritual reset. Some 40 events around the world will mark the change.

“We’ve activated this campaign for three days of love,” said movement co-founder Stephen Dinan. “Let’s have generosity and kindness be the operative fare, rather than people hunkering down in fear.”

In Mexico’s Mayan heartland, nobody is preparing for the end of the world; instead, they’re bracing for a tsunami of spiritual visitors of the terrestrial variety.

Hotels near the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza have been sold out, with many rooms booked a year in advance. Volunteers at the Kinich Ahau center – dedicated to spreading the “authentic wisdom of the Maya” – were busy chopping resinous wood to mix with incense for a sacred fire ceremony to greet visitors from around the world. Mass tribal drumming, circles of energy and ritual dancing were also planned.

For Esquivel and other modern-day Maya, Dec. 21 is a chance to raise awareness about rescuing the planet, not prepare for its demise. People all over the world need to focus on the very real damage people have done to the Earth, he said, and sound the alarm about growing catastrophes, such as climate change.

“We’re putting in danger the existence of our world,” Esquivel said. “It’s our goal for this date to create consciousness about our Earth. We want to say to everybody that the Maya live and we want to gather our strength to save the Earth.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/panic-or-party-thousands-prepare-for-end-of-the-mayan-calendar-and-possibly-the-world/feed7stdMayan shamans perform a ritual at the Quirigua archaeological site, Izabal department, 210 km north of Guatemala City on November 21, 2012. Ceremonies will be held here to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle known as Bak'tun 13 and the start of the new Maya Era on December 21. The Mayan calendar has 18 months of 20 days each plus a sacred month, "Wayeb," with five days. "B'aktun" is the largest unit in the time-cycle system, and is about 400 years. The broader era spans 13 B'aktun, or about 5,200 years.Will the world end in 2012?: One in 10 Canadians anticipating the apocalypse before New Year'shttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/will-the-world-end-in-2012-one-in-10-canadians-anticipating-the-apocalypse-before-new-years
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/will-the-world-end-in-2012-one-in-10-canadians-anticipating-the-apocalypse-before-new-years#commentsFri, 07 Dec 2012 21:00:22 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=241552

A Canadian earth scientist confirms that the end of the world is coming. Just not in time to meet the latest doomsday deadline.

With the termination of the Mayan calendar approaching, speculation around Dec. 21 marking Armageddon – a prediction believed by nearly one in 10 Canadians – is kicking into high gear. Even skeptics are expected to join in, with experts noting that it’s only natural to entertain the question of, ‘what if?’

“Humans are very preoccupied with their own lifetimes,” says Robert McLeman, associate professor of environmental studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. “There’s a latent concern in everybody that maybe there’s something (threatening) out there that they should be aware of.”

A recent Ipsos survey of 16,262 people in 21 countries found 10 per cent of global citizens agree that “the Mayan calendar, which some say ‘ends’ in 2012, marks the end of the world.” Of the roughly 1,000 Canadians polled, nine per cent held that belief.

But if Judgment Day is imminent, there’s little sign of it in popular science.

Humans are very preoccupied with their own lifetimes

NASA has refuted all claims that the planet could meet its end, or experience any kind of “blackout,” on Dec. 21. And McLeman notes that the next asteroid that poses even a mild threat isn’t likely to be a danger until 2040, let alone in the next two weeks.

“I don’t think the ancient Mayans knew anything more about the end of the world than we do today,” says McLeman, adding with a laugh that he’s “prepared to be wrong and face the punishment of the gods.”

Colin Goldblatt, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, says the planet is indeed operating under a deadline. Just not the same one professed by “2012’ers.”

“Ultimately, the apocalypse will be something called a runaway greenhouse,” says Goldblatt. “Venus in the past is like earth in the future.”

Evidence suggests Venus’ early history was marked by a warming effect similar to what we’re experiencing now, with temperatures eventually soaring to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius – boiling the ocean – as a result of more energy getting in than out. Goldblatt says the same thing will happen here, making earth uninhabitable, but likely not for another billion years.

“I wouldn’t change your Christmas plans,” he says wryly.

My expectation is that 80% of current humanity will be eliminated

Bruce Beach has been preparing for End Times for decades, and boasts one of the largest privately constructed fallout shelters in North America. The 10,000 square-foot bunker, known as ‘Ark Two,’ is made from 42 school busses buried beneath earth and concrete in rural Ontario.

“My expectation is that 80% of current humanity will be eliminated,” says Beach, a 78-year-old “reconstructionist” who spends 14 hours a day readying for nuclear catastrophe.

Jacqui Derbecker, a visionary from Barrie, Ont., is preparing for a turning point of a rosier sort: she sees the post-Dec. 21 world as being characterized by a return to innocence, wherein “relationships and positive vibrations” prevail. She describes it as being more like Candy Land than the Walking Dead.

“You could call it a dismantling of old ideas and really coming back to your original self,” says Derbecker, author of Movement of Stillness. “It’s an energy change, and it’s already happening.”

Society always frowns upon people they see as alarmist…. But there are a lot worse things to do than store food

Matt Sharp, executive producer of the TV show Doomsday Preppers, says some of the most common apocalyptic concerns include pandemic, economic collapse, nuclear war, and a power-grid failure that takes major cities offline for a year or longer. In all scenarios, the foreseen outcome is the same: a world plunged into chaos.

And Sharp doesn’t think that’s altogether unlikely. He points out that epic disaster scenarios which once seemed absurd – say, New York subways being flooded by a Frankenstorm – are increasingly being proven plausible.

“Society always frowns upon people they see as alarmist…. But there are a lot worse things to do than store food, water and come up with some sort of plan ‘just in case,’” says Sharp, who notes that the survivalists once seen as punchlines are causing others to reconsider who’ll have the last laugh.

“There’s an audience out there that watches (our show) and says, ‘These people are crazy.’ But after a few episodes, they’re at the local hardware store stocking up on duct tape.”